Data Recovery - What Not to Do!

Data recovery is a tricky thing, and if you've somehow deleted or had
your important files corrupted or lost due to human error, business
espionage, faulty hardware or software or any other reason; the good news
is that your lost data is probably recoverable. This article will show you
a few things NOT to do when an event such as this occurs.

Don't run the drive anymore, or use the device. (MP3, portable storage,
camera card, whatever) If you think it won't hurt to even just poke around
the internet for a solution to this mess you've made/found, you're wrong!
Don't install or run anything on the drive you hope to recover data from.
Only access this drive again from a healthy PC with the software solution
you're going to use. Since files are overwritten in the order they've been
deleted, the last files that have been excised from your drive will be the
first to be lost permanently. Even just surfing, with all the cookies and
temporary internet files that are always being generated will often doom
the process without you even knowing about it.

Don't use tools that may reside on your computer, such as Scandisk, or
a boot record utility, as these will probably overwrite exactly the files
you're seeking to get back.

In short, be careful! Your data may very well be recoverable, as long
as you don't do something to erase it forever! Find a good data recovery
software solution, and then follow the instructions to the letter, and
you'll more than likely live to see your lost data return!

Keith Thompson is the webmaster at
Data Recovery Service a site cenetered around helping you get back
your lost data!